If you’ll recall, last month the Quad Cities River Bandits announced their “Name the Promotion” contest, in which fans were invited to submit their ideas for promotions that the club could stage at Modern Woodmen Park in 2009. A refresher course on said announcement is available here.

Well, yesterday the team announced their five finalists. Here they are, cut and pasted direct from the press release:

Bandit Wedding – One lucky couple will have the wedding of a
lifetime and get married on the Modern Woodmen Park diamond immediately
before a River Bandits game!

Beverage Batter – If the River Bandits player selected pre-game
delivers a base hit during the contest, everybody in attendance
benefits from beverage discounts for the remainder of the inning!

Elvis Night – A full-blown promotional night dedicated to The King himself!

Rascal Kids Hat Giveaway – What more exciting of a giveaway item can we plan than a kids’ hat featuring the River Bandits lovable mascot Rascal?

Van Down by the River – A few lucky fans each night would have
the opportunity to take in a ballgame from a River Bandits van parked
on the right field berm!

To me, the choice is a no-brainer — Van Down By the River!

The first four promotions are all well and good, but let’s face it: they’ve all been done before, and they are all things that the River Bandits front office would have been more than capable of implementing on their own, without fan involvement.

But “Van Down By the River” is something else entirely, an absurd and totally unique way to watch a game in a stadium that already features plenty of unorthodox seating options. Plus, I believe that it would be the first seating area in Minor League Baseball to be inspired by a Saturday Night Live sketch. That fact alone could inspire many other River Bandits promotions, such as renaming themselves the “Schwing of the Quad Cities” for a day.

And, speaking for myself, I’ve often dreamed of watching Minor League Baseball from the back of a van. In this dream, the van is equipped with an endless supply of Andy Capp’s Hot Fries, and there is a sticker on the back which reads “If this van’s a rockin’, then it is probably because I am playing Black Sabbath at a very high volume.”

Have a great Valentine’s Day weekend, everybody. I’m going to celebrate by taping a rose to my favorite pinball machine.

Meta

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